The Daily

Goon Affiliated

There are two sides to Plies: the hard-thugging street loyalist and the absurdist, cackling popinjay. When the Florida MC indulges his inner court jester on Goon Affiliated, he’s on. He feigns giggly eye-rolling over the misconceived notion that rich black men make their money from drug-pushing in the smugly cavalier “Look Like,” giddily introduces new slang to the national urban vernacular in the riotous, insinuative “Becky” and the sneering, breakneck “Bruh Bruh,” and plays poker-faced player-philanthropist in “She Got It Made,” which is filled with sweet promises and molasses-thick church organs. Unfortunately, much of Affiliated is conventional, padded with cuts like “Get My Niggas Out” and half-baked premises like “Kitty Kitty,” which guest crooner Trey Songz steals without even realizing it.